Rolleiflex SL35M
The Rolleiflex SL35M is a 35mm single lens reflex launched by Rollei in 1976.
The history of this camera is quite tormented. At the beginning of the 1970s the German camera industry was facing difficulties. Rollei tried to maintain a politics of diversification, with a range of cheap viewfinder cameras in many different formats (110, 126, 35mm), more evolved compacts like the Rollei 35, the traditional high end medium-format TLR Rolleiflex, a very expensive medium-format SLR Rolleiflex SL66. At the middle range there were the home-breed 35mm SLRs Rolleiflex SL35 and SL350. But in 1972 the great company Zeiss-Ikon collapsed and ceased the production of cameras. It was also a generalist maker, who tried to produce cameras for all the segments of the market, from low range to high end. In the wake of this collapse, many bits of the Zeiss-Ikon empire were transfered to other hands, for example factories, brand names, research results, projects of cameras or even some already released models.
Rollei recuperated the name Voigtlander from Zeiss in 1972, together with the last 35mm SLR model released by Zeiss Ikon, the Zeiss Ikon SL706. They decided to revive Voigtlander as a brand name, and to produce a version of the SL706 called the Voigtlander VSL1, almost identical to its predecessor. Both the SL706 and VSL1 were designed to accept 42mm screw mount lenses. So Rollei was paradoxically to build at the same time their own reflex SL35 and SL350, with its specific bayonet mount, and this concurrent model VSL1 that took different lenses.
In 1976 they took the more radical decision to drop the production of the SL35 and SL350 and to concentrate on derivatives of the VSL1. They first released a version of the VSL1 with the SL35 bayonet mount, called the Voigtlander VSL1 BM, to standardize the lens range. All the bodies could now receive the Rolleiflex SL35 lenses. Then they launched the Rolleiflex SL35M, which is exactly the same camera as the VSL1 BM except the cosmetic appearance. This move was quite unexpected. It is rare to see a maker buy another company and abandon its own product to concentrate on the one they have bought.
Despite their complicated history, the Rolleiflex SL35M and Voigtlander VSL1 BM were straightforward SLR cameras of the 70s, with a through the lens exposure meter giving a match needle measure, readable at open aperture, a hot-shoe and decent if innovative ergonomics. The finish was correct but not always to the standards of quality one would expect from such a firm as Rollei. All these models were manufactured in Rollei's plant in Singapore, one of the first movements of delocalization in the camera industry. Quality control in the plant has been questioned by some people, and the common knowledge seems to be that it was indeed bad at the beginning, and that the situation later improved.
The clients probably did not find the politics of Rollei very readable, and the SL35M, VSL1 and VSL1 BM were not a big success. They only existed in black finish, except some of the very first VSL1, in chrome.
